Thanks for reading

It's time again to say a quick thank you to some bloggers out there for reading and linking to Ionarts:

• Travelers Diagram for his Roundup of Eight New Blogs on October 20, identifying Ionarts as "In-depth on art and music. Especially pre-20th Century art."
• Blogger TPB, Esq. of Unbillable Hours for featuring Ionarts posts on Tomb of St. Peter on the Vatican Hill and Andras Schiff on the Goldberg Variations.
• Blogger Nathalie Chicha of Cup of Chicha for a mention of the Painting the Weather exhibit I referenced during Hurricane Isabel.
• Tyler Green at Modern Art Notes (October 21) and blogger a. c. douglas for mentions of the Paris-related postings on Ionarts.

In case you missed it, a. c. douglas had the last word, on October 5, in our exchange about whether in a Wagner opera the orchestra provides an "accompaniment" to the singers on the stage, which a. c. says "betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the essential nature of the music-drama, and of what it consists." When someone uses these sorts of words (I or what I said is also "in error," "totally wrong," and "completely inapt"), there is obviously no access for any opposing opinion and therefore no cause for further dialogue. I guess that I have only to follow this line of thinking to conclude that it was actually the singers whom Wagner intended to have hidden below the stage in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, while the stage was reserved for "the orchestra wherein resides the very core of the drama itself." I may never understand and appreciate Wagner in the way a. c. does, that is, with a lot of passion and reverence. I like Wagner's operas and I find them interesting, but if I had to make a choice, I would much rather see and hear Verdi's Otello or Falstaff (what a. c. somewhat pointedly calls Verdi's "Wagner-influenced two last operas") than any work by Wagner.

UPDATE:
In an update on October 23, a. c. again had the last word, by comparing my views on Wagner to those of the Flat Earth Society. That, dear readers, is the sort of conviction that perfectly illustrates my point that any future dialogue is impossible. As Bertrand Russell put it, "I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt." But perhaps he was wrong. I'm willing to consider it.